What encouraged you to be part of AFDA? 

My work is very speculative and one-offs, so I typically do not engage with design competitions that tend to be oriented towards industrial product design. However, I was intrigued by past finalists and winning entries in the AFDA where more experimental designs and alternative materials and processes were clearly being showcased. The theme of the show, ‘design the world you want’ and the criteria for sustainable practice appealed to me, as this is my design and conceptual focus. I was interested in proposing a design that was not just a surficial nod to sustainability, but one that reached deep into our systems of resource supply chains and production practices and to really take on the challenge of the brief.

Tell us about your winning submission -‘The Dream, or: the view from here is both bleak and resplendent.’ Is there something that was an integral to the design or that you are most proud of? 

What was integral to the design was that it is not just a piece of furniture that uses sustainable materials and practices (uptake of waste materials, natural dyes), but that the actual form and function of the piece, a chaise lounge that supports a person lying back in a contemplative moment, is integral to the concept. It couldn’t have been a table or a side chair or lamp, because the piece is providing a particular vantage point while asking the user to contemplate the waste that we generate and the future for landscapes and resources. The lounge position could be that of someone by the pool who is shrugging off the impending climate crisis and enjoying the good life while they still can, or it could be the position of someone on the therapist’s couch suffering from climate change anxiety. The form, function, process and concept for the piece are inexorably intertwined.

Are there elements of your winning submission that you would like to incorporate in your product collaboration with Stylecraft?

I am very interested in working with Stylecraft to find viable pathways for engaging with the circular economy. This will be the biggest challenge for all socially and environmentally conscientious designers and manufacturers in the near future, when it will become increasingly unacceptable to extract and use virgin resources. It is a huge challenge because it is a giant shift to conventional systems, but it is doable and leading design houses will find creative solutions in developing supply chains that re-source previously used materials and divert them from the waste stream. I am also really interested in more experimentation with the use of native Eucalypt leaves for dying wool upholstery textiles for Stylecraft products.

How did you feel when the NGV approached you about acquiring your winning piece for their permanent collection?

Elated and honoured! It means so much to be part of a national collection, especially since the piece is very much about the Australian landscape and the effects of continuous resource extraction and grazing on the land and oceans. It is really important to me that the NGV is exhibiting critical design that calls out societal and environmental issues with which design has been complicit. This is huge.